The elder champions
by TheOmegaShade
Summary: This story is completely fan-made and was written for entertainment purposes. Just a quick memo: Tynvir, Kayden, Elberond, Hyaril and Waylas (the five main characters so far) are all based on real people
1. Prologue

Prologue  
Tynvir

As I stood there, my head in my hands, I contemplated my mistake. How could I have been so naïve as to believe that they'd let me go? I was found riding with Ulfric Stormcloak himself, for Talos's sake! At least I wasn't the only one.  
I was caught alongside four other travellers, a dark elf, a wood elf, a high elf and a redguard. The wood elf was more than happy to tell us about himself, and probably would've told us his life story if he had the time. His name was Elberond; he came from Arenthia in Valenwood and had come up to Skyrim to meet an old friend of his, who went by the name of Faendal. The dark elf was another character entirely. She was by far the shortest here and went by the name of The Dark Witch, a name given to her by her college master, but we later found out her real name was Kayden. She came from Mournhold, a City in Morrowind. She informed us that she was coming to Skyrim to seek audience with the head of the Mages College in Winterhold. This high elf, elves which are usually very racist and discriminatory by nature, seemed a lot kinder than usual, and spoke to us freely as though we were his equals. He told us his name was Hyaril, and that he came from Skywatch in the Summerset Isles. He was also on his way to the Mages College. He, however, was going there to speak to his sister, Faralda, who had sent an urgent letter to him, stating that she had become a teacher in the college. The redguard was by far the strangest of the lot. He told us his name was Waylas and he hailed from Sentinel in Hammerfell. He claimed that his brother, Nazir, who he had not spoken to since he had left for Skyrim, had offered him a job as an assassin. While this wasn't uncommon, it was definitely strange, since there was only one assassin's guild in Skyrim, and they would only claim the best of the best.  
Since the others had already told me about themselves, and due to the fact I would probably be executed in a day or two, I decided there was no harm in telling them about my life. I informed them that my name, Tynvir, was a typical Nordic name, and that I came from Whiterun in Skyrim. I had been travelling back from Riverhold in Elsweyr, as I had been doing a pilgrimage of Tamriel to start my career as an adventurer. When we finally arrived at Helgen, the first town in Skyrim from the Southern gate, we discovered that the Imperial legion had already set up a camp there and were waiting for the caravan to arrive. The fact that General Tullius himself was there did not bode well for us. When he asked our guard about who we were, he answered that we had been captured alongside the Stormcloaks, and that he had taken us along to await the Generals judgement. When he asked us the same question, we replied that we were travellers and had come to Skyrim for different reasons. I was asked last, and when I replied, he noted that I seemed very familiar. When I replied that my father had been in the imperial legion, he told me that he would ask his superiors as to what to do. We waited there for the larger portion of the day, until eventually, he returned.

It turned out; his "superiors" were actually the Skyrim branch of the Thalmor. While most of the others got away without a problem, I was sent to be executed. It turned out that the Thalmor leader here was a certain Elenwen, who I had happened to have stumbled upon while I was in the Summerset Isles. We didn't leave on the friendliest terms, and I can only assume that this position was a form of punishment for kicking me out of the high chamber, while I was speaking to her leader at the time.  
There were two things, however, that stopped me from being executed. Firstly was the fact that General Tullius stopped her on my Fathers behalf, and the second was the fact that, since my older brother, Skjor, was a member of the Companions, Aela the Huntress had come to support me and speak on my behalf. The same could not be said for Ulfric however. He did, however have the rest of the Stormcloak army outside the gate by the time he was meant to be executed. They came up with a list of terms, and unless these were followed to the letter, they'd bring down the gate, and would massacre everyone. They were to let Ulfric and all the other captives walk out, and then they would abandon their posts and return to their other towns. They must leave Elenwen and the Thalmor inside, and the town would be left as a neutral point in Skyrim. Obviously, the Thalmor weren't going to accept these terms, as it would be a guaranteed massacre. However, the Thalmor weren't in control here, the imperials were, and they knew it. We, however, had already been freed, so the imperials just let us walk out, but not before the imperials ensured we got out of range of the Stormcloaks. Before we could leave however, one of the Thalmor's mages closed and locked all the gates, with half of the imperial army outside of it. Unless it wasn't obvious, this was seen as direct treason to the imperials, and a personal attack on the Stormcloaks, not by the imperials for once, but by the Thalmor themselves! Well, we couldn't be having this, could we?  
As the armies began to take their formation, the imperials decided to give us back our weapons and armour. These included my war axe, shield and armour, Elberond's bow and robes, Kaydens' robes and staff, Hyaril's gauntlets and Waylis's scimitar. After doing so, they informed us that we had a choice, fight for the good of Skyrim, or run for your lives. For me, it was an almost instantaneous response, "Victory or Sovengarde!"


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- a Dunmers tale  
Kayden

As we cleared up the final remnants of the Thalmor rebels, we started to get a better idea of what was going on. The first thing I noticed was that these "Stormcloaks" were made up almost entirely of Nords. The other strange thing was that the Imperial army also consisted of a large number of Nords. Whether this was because it was their homeland and they were the most readily accessible people in Skyrim, or whoever it was because of the civil war going on at the moment, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that no one here is "friendly" to the Thalmor, but, then again, neither were my people. Before I go on, I'll tell you the tale of how I came to be in Skyrim. It had all started when my sister, Arwen, was taken by a rival wizard called Ancano. Last I heard, he'd come to Skyrim with the Thalmor, to what purpose, I had no idea. Had he come with Arwen, however? That was my main question. It had been answered by Rulindil, the "late" third Emissary of Skyrim, who, very wisely, decided to inform me that he was currently residing, not only in Skyrim, but in the college of Winterhold. I was going to head over there anyway, just to check up on Brelyna Maryon, an old friend of my sister's. It had been seven years since anyone had last heard of her, and people were getting worried, and coming from a family like hers, it was right that people were worried.  
There was another reason that I came to Skyrim, however. Karliah, an old friend of my mother, had recently sent a letter to me and my brother, Dalam Dreth. My brother, unlike me and his sister, wasn't a magician, but was instead a member of the Morrowind thieves guild, and he had, or so it was told, made a name for himself after the events that occurred after the so-called "raid of darkness", that had destroyed at least three of the guild halls across Tamriel, and had left another beyond repair. He, apparently, had taken place in the re-establishing of the guild, and had escalated to the point at which, the last time I saw him, he had been the guild-masters right hand man. Things may have changed since back then, but last I checked, he was pretty influential.

The letter itself detailed the problem with Skyrim's thieves' guild, and how, apparently, it had been corrupted by a Breton within the thieves guild. It was rumoured by some that he had been taking the private earnings and profits from the Guilds vault. When questioned about this rumour, people often just started mumbling things like 'Nightingale' and 'Gallus'. Whether these were the name and rank of the thief, I could not tell. One thing I could say however was that they were at least related to the topic, or else they wouldn't have been so scared to talk about it in front of me. It also wouldn't have resulted in a few deaths, if it had been anything but. I didn't kill them, they had been useful to me and I had hoped to recruit them for the search, no, the murderer had been subtle, but he had mucked it up on the last hit. He had, unfortunately for him, in his haste, torn a scrap of cloth from a cloak that was obviously of Thieves guild origins. This had left me with at least a clue of what I might be up against. He was good, but not that good.

As we were finishing up with the cleaning, we were approached by the heads of both armies, Ulfric Stormcloak and General Tullius, both of which seemed to have something to say to us. Ulfric started with "pleased to finally be able to speak with you. If I may ask, who exactly am I speaking to?" a simple enough question, one would think. The answer, however, was anything but. I decided to stick to the old "a traveller" tune. They didn't buy it. This time, it was General Tullius who spoke. "We've already spoken to the others, who've given us all their details. A knight, a ranger, a wizard and an assassin makes for a strange team, does it not?" Even as I tried to inform him that it was simply chance that we had met, I knew that not even the Daedra themselves could have asked for a better excuse for passage through Skyrim. A band of wandering mercenaries or adventurers were, apparently, very normal in these lands. This would be perfect! If the others consented that is. The Nord would probably join, he was going for an adventure anyway, the High Elf might join, I mean, we were headed to the same place anyway; the Wood Elf seemed friendly enough and seemed eager to help. The Redguard, however, was a different tale. Who knows what he might do? In response to his statement, I replied that "we were still thinking about it, but we're probably just going to stay low for a bit, just in case any more Thalmor showed up". Both leaders agreed to that plan and claimed that they would create a temporary truce against each other, in order to bolster their defence against the Thalmor.  
An hour or so later, we had arrived to a conclusion. We would form an alliance, either temporary or permanent, and we would watch each other's backs and would do jobs together, effectively becoming a band of mercenaries. We would help anyone who needed help, be they poor or rich, male or female, mer or men. So long as there was good in their hearts and they had the courage to match it, we would fight for them or at their sides. We were all agreed. The first thing we had to do, however, was to head over to a place called 'Riverwood', and from there, to Whiterun.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- To Riverwood!  
Elberond

"So, it's decided" I stated "we're going to Whiterun, by way of Riverwood". "Yep" replied Tynvir "that's right". "Well, if I may ask, why are we going there? Why not somewhere like, I don't know, Solitude, Windhelm or maybe Falkreath? I've heard it's nice this time of year. Plenty of leads and adventures there" "Do you have some sort of problem with going to Whiterun?" asked Waylas. A keen observer there, I could tell. "Now whatever gave you that impression? Was it the fact that I've hinted towards avoiding that area at all costs?". "Well could you please expand on that?" "Let's just say that the companions, situated there, aren't too friendly to my family" "well, isn't that weird" replied Tynvir. "How's that weird?" I replied "Most of my family has been a member of the companions at one point or another" he countered "so we're going to Whiterun for a family reunion?" I questioned "That, and the fact that Whiterun is the central hub for trading in all of Skyrim. We should be able to find some way to get news on everyone's little quests, and then we can deal with them, one at a time". Had to admit, I was stumped. He had everything covered. And, when faced with an option like that, my usual Bosmer stubbornness left me. "Can we at least stay in Riverwood for a while? I've got some business I need to deal with" I proposed. "That shouldn't be a problem. And it should help me re-acquaint with some old friends. There's also the fact that, last I checked, Faendal was holed up in Riverwood, waiting for an 'old-friend' to pass by". That was it then, we were going to Riverwood.  
First thing we did was get our horses back. Some Stormcloaks decided that they were going to 'take advantage' of the spare horses. Problem was they were our horses. So, me and Waylas tied them up and left them with a note that simply read 'dear Ulfric. Keep your hands of our Feck 'in horses. Yours sincerely, the red dragons' should leave a clear enough message. Once we'd reacquainted ourselves with our horses, we started off from Falkreath hold and headed towards Riverwood. It had started to get dark by the time we finally arrived at Riverwood. The first thing we did was head over to the local tavern, the Sleeping Giant Inn, to book our rooms. The merchant, Orgnar, showed us to our rooms. It seemed that Hyaril, Waylas and I would be sharing a room, while Kayden had a room for herself. Tynvir was bunking with an old friend and mentor of his, Alvor, who was the local blacksmith in Riverwood, and, reportedly, the fourth best in all of Skyrim, the best being Eorlund Gray-Mane of Whiterun, the second being Ghorza gra-Bagol, the Orc smith in Markarth and the third being Adrianne Avenicci, an old lover of Tynvir, back before he left on his tour of Tamriel. Now, however she was married to Ulfberth War-Bear. How Tynvir felt about this was unknown, since the man was as easy to read as a burnt book, but we guessed he was okay with it, mainly due to the fact that he called Ulfberth a 'lucky bastard' and started reminiscing about the time the two of them had fought off a pair of sabre cats while Adrianne shot the third that was trying to get around their flank. A 'fine hunt' he called it. I would have called it difficult at best, but he just seemed to take everything in his stride.  
While we were in Riverwood, Waylas had decided that we ought to repair some of our equipment and get some new supplies as well. We headed over to Alvor firstly, to see whether he could make me some more arrows, and whether he could sharpen Waylas's scimitar for him, as he'd lost his whetstone on the road and didn't feel it would be worth it to try and get it back. Alvor told us he'd be finished by the days end. After thanking him, we offered him payment, which he refused, due to the fact that we were 'honoured friends' of Tynvir, and through him, Alvor. We thanked him again and headed over to the Riverwood trader to get some food and torches, as we were planning on heading to Whiterun quite late the next night, and would need some light to help us out. When, we arrived, the shopkeeper told us that Tynvir had left us with a shopping list. I knew I hadn't and was about to ask him about it, when Waylas handed him a roll of paper about 2 feet long and a foot wide. "By the eight! How're we going to carry all of that?" I exclaimed. Before Lucius could answer though, an old friend and the bard at the inn, Sven it think his name was, rushed through the door.  
"I'm gonna gut you like a fish!" exclaimed Sven, who was on top of Faendal, with a wicked looking knife clutched in his hand. It was only then that he noticed they had company. "Lucius, just who I wanted to see!" this was still Sven speaking. Faendal was lying on the floor, a note basically scrunched into his fist. As I went to check on my friend, Sven showed flicked his gaze in my direction and warned me away with his knife. So, in return, I unsheathed my dagger, an old glass blade that I liked to call 'Widow-maker', due to the fire enchantment it had been given, and threw it, blade first, at Sven. Me being the expert marksman I am, I managed to skim his head and hit one his 'finely-platted' braids that those Nords seemed to hold in such high honour. That shut him up soon enough. As I helped Faendal up, he started saying his thanks, until he noticed who I was. "YOU SON OF A HORKER!" he shouted. "What a charming way to greet an old friend" "Old friend? OLD FRIEND!? YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!"  
Okay, some background information before I continue: I used to be the second best hunter in all of Valenwood, the best being the King himself. I sold my goods to everyone, from the moth priests, to the Vigilants of Stendar, to the Bosmer queen herself. At one point I was the head hunter of the King, and had Faendal as my apprentice and squire. A third of the kingdom bought my wares. That was, until Faendal started selling my kills, behind my back, for a quarter of the price. So, when I next headed to Skyrim to hunt some bears, I left him behind 'on watch'. I took the first chance I could to leave him. He had enough food and drink to keep him going for well over a week, and he'd made enough to start a nice little life for himself. There were two reasons I was coming to Skyrim though: to make sure he was still alive and to find Arwen, who'd been taken from me in the middle of the night.

Back in the present however, he didn't seem to be able to quite comprehend that him being alive was a luxury I'd only granted out of loyalty for the Valenwood laws. "I'm going to kill you" he started "but not before you explain why you left me to the mercy of the bears". At this point Sven had left the building, and all that filled that awkward silence was him, sobbing at his loss. I promised myself that I'd ask Tynvir about that the first chance I could. "Would you mind if we did this in private, Faendal?" "No, if you can't talk about your cowardice in front of everyone, then you don't get to talk at all". He'd obviously missed my dagger-throwing demonstration, and still believed that he could take me down, on his own, with nothing but his bare-hands, while I was armed with my bow, my three other daggers (the fourth was still imbedded in the wall) and a new short sword, which I had bought from a traveling blacksmith on the way from Helgen. Kind bloke, if a bit temperamental, but that's to be expected from Nords. "I will only give you this chance to do this in private, or I will be forced to state it in public, understand?" I informed him "Get on with it then!" he was on the brink of madness, I could tell. "Very well then, the high king himself has banished you from Valenwood until you can prove to him, in ten years' time, that you are a changed and honest man". That certainly burst his ego. "Why?" I was impressed you could stammer that much out. "Listen, I'm sorry I left you, but, in my defence, what you had done was possibly the worst crime imaginable that an apprentice could commit, and I only barely managed to persuade him not to banish you for life. You can still redeem yourself, and, if you do, I have ensured a placement within the royal court." I wasn't sure how much more I'd be able to say to convince him. Luckily, however, it seemed that would be enough. "I guess I should be thanking you then. If you ever need any help around these parts, just call on me, okay?" I could tell I'd made the right choice in trusting him. "Well, it's getting late, and we'll come by tomorrow to pick up the gear" Waylas was already on his way out, but I wanted to talk some more with Faendal and Lucius to see if we could arrange something between the two of them so that Faendal would be able to make enough to buy enough gear for the journey to Cyrodiil, where, he claimed, he'd try and find some work as a hunter himself and would be able to earn enough respect to be able to go home. "I'll see you late Waylas, I just need to some stuff out" I told him. He shrugged and left. "Now, to business …"


End file.
